Machete and the Double Standard

For my free blog, I decided to look at a movie that stems from filmmaker Robert Rodriguez. I have always been a huge fan of Rodriquez, especially since him and Quentin Tarantino seem to be cut from the same cloth. Tarantino has been on of my favorites ever since the first time I watched Reservoir Dogs. Back in 2007, Rodriguez and Tarantino teamed up to make a film called Grindhouse, giving an ode to the old grindhouse movies, that centered around exploitation of a certain subject and filled with violence, sex, romance, etc. These films usually were low budget films and were shown at grindhouse theaters or drive-ins. Rodriguez made the movie Planet Terror while Tarantino made Death Proof. Those films combined created Grindhouse. Prior to the films, Tarantino and Rodriguez introduced fake trailers as a source of entertainment. One of the trailers happened to be for a fake movie called Machete.

Trailer for Machete - Grindhouse Version

Fast forward three years later and a new Machete trailer is out. However, this time it is not a joke trailer, but an actual movie slated to be released in theaters. Basically, the movie is centered around Machete, an ex Mexican Federale, who ends up in Texas as an illegal immigrant. Along the border in Texas, a group of immigrants work to control the border by murdering illegals at the border. It is very similar to the border patrol flash game that we were showed in class. A Texas Senator candidate is for the border control, and exclaims something along the lines of  "We are at war, every time an illegal dances across our border, it is an act of aggression against this sovereign state — an overt act of terrorism."

Openly calls out Arizona Immigration Law at the beginning 

The senator's campaign manager, without the knowledge of the candidate, hires Machete to kill the candidate, and sets up Machete for attempting to assassinate the candidate. This essentially leads to a huge debacle and turns into a race war between the conservatives at the border, and the illegal aliens.

If you are shocked by the plot, imagine how white nationalists felt. Though I enjoyed the movie on a totally pure entertainment value, there are a ton of underlying issues and messages layered underneath the movie. Clearly, the movie is exploiting the issue of illegal aliens and the stance conservative states, such as Arizona, took with regards to the issue. It is meant to be controversial, so I was interested to see how white nationalists would take a movie like this.

Many on Stormfront proclaim this movie to be one of the worst movies ever made in the current era. Many have a problem with how the double standard of Mexicans starting a race war, as opposed to whites starting a race war. There is almost a 30 page forum that deals with the movie, and the fear, anger, and confusion it left some white nationalist in when they initially saw the trailer.

Believe it or not, some white nationalists were in fear in what could result from this movie. Many pointed out that exploitation  movies of the past were used as tools to make the white man look vulnerable, and allow for the lower IQ races to violently retaliate back. With the topic of immigration being such a hot stove topic, many thought that this movie could push Mexican immigrants (illegal or not) to start a race war. Many comments suggested people gear up for retaliation and laughed off the notion of guns being more powerful than machetes.

A majority of the white nationalists were fuming about the movie because it again pushes the belief that the media is ran by Jewish control, and the movie being permitted to be released worldwide was the biggest hate crime a person can commit. The allowance of this movie to be seen by the public, portrays whites so unfavorably, that it can stir up animosity into minorities, where they will rise up and attack whites.

Many people welcomed the idea of a race war, while others protested. A group in San Francisco called Bay Area National Anarchists (BANA) protested the movie and its messagewhile being armed with machetes. The use of machetes during protest was a sign of symbolic speech and protected against the First Amendment, as long as there were no violence, threats, or other sources intimidation.

White nationalists believe that they are the victims in the movie and are negatively portrayed. The movie flips the script and makes the oppressed the oppressor. White nationalists hated Inglorious Bastards too and talked about how when Nazis kill Jews it's vilified, and when Jews killed Nazis it's entertainment and even comical. I'll give it to white nationalist, they are the victims in these movies, but that is the point of these exploitation movies. It is fantasy. A group that is normally oppressed rises up. The movie does flip flop the script to a certain point.

Poster for Inglorious Basterds

White nationalists claim to be the victim in cinema or media in general, and complain about this double standard. It's not for every movie, just the majority of them. But in the cases of Machete and Inglorious Bastards they are fictional depictions and are used as entertainment. Jews killing Hitler is more comical than Hitler killing the Jews because the latter is TRUE. Would you rather be oppressed in movies or in real life? Even looking at this story, white nationalists call for the double standards of equality in cinema, but look who gets away with protesting those movies with weapons like machetes. I am positive that minorities protesting a film that was anti-minority would be taken so lightly…